Vienna

Vienna is one of the great cities of Europe. Our first sight was this strange hairy statue next to our hotel.

This is not how I imagined Mark Antony...

The State Opera

An odd way to buy newspapers.

Royalty often had greenhouses to grow citrus year round. The Palmenhaus is now a great Viennese cafe.

The Schmetterlinghaus, or Butterfly house, is next door.

Butterflies year-round!

The Austrian National Library houses important ancient documents from around the world.

The Tabula Peutingeriana is one of the most famous maps of the Roman Empire

The library itself is a work of art.

A fountain outside the Hofburg, one of the may Hapsburg's residences.

Ow

Vienna houses many of the treasures of the ancient city of Ephesus.

Different types of marble found in Ephesus.

12 Gods of an ancient Lycian cult.

Baby with goose

The Ephesus Museum used to house the Jewish museum, which was destroyed by the Nazis. These are artifacts recovered from the museum.

The concept for an automatic begging machine.

The House of Austrian History has many interesting exhibits, like this Trojan Horse used to protest the election of Kurt Waldheim, President of Austria and former Nazi.

Nixon, savior of Hungary

The Papyrus Museum houses some of the world's most critical written ancient history, such as a 2nd/3rd century AD copy of Xenophon's Hellenica.

A Tellurium from the 19th century in the Globe Museum, used to figure out when solar and lunar eclipses will happen.

The Black Camel in Vienna has the best finger sandwiches money can buy.

The plague column

St. Stephen's Cathedral

St. Stephen's was originally built in the 14th century.

The tomb of Emperor Frederick III. You can tour the crypt of the cathedral and see the containers holding all the Hapsburg royalty's entrails.

Starbucks!

The Karlskirche

Secession, the hub of Vienna's Art Nouveau

Maria Theresa in front of the Natural History Museum

The Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna is not to be missed. It even has a gold hoard!

Quite the dragon fight

A model of a mine in Slovakia from 1764

A table fountain from 1650

Emperor Leopold I is very... distinct looking.

The pikes!

With a centerpiece like this, it would be hard to pay attention to anything else.

Don't steal her wig!

Robo-Bacchus, 16th century

And now for something completely different.

A griffon water pitcher from the 12th century

The Tower of Babel, 1563

The Museum of Military History houses an impressive collection, even though the Hapsburgs hired most of their most successful generals.

It is hard to imagine what wall could stand up to this cannon.

The museum is in the old Hapsburg arsenal.

The seal of Sultan Mustafa II, which he lost fleeing Hapsburg forces.

A captured Turkish war tent, and the mortar that hit the Turkish powder room in Belgrade, leading to Hapsburg victory.

Hussar hats

A French liberty cap

A captured French war balloon from 1796

A horn commemorating victory at Monte Berico, Vicenza, in the fight against Italian nationalists.

The museum has a hall of heroes spanning the Holy Roman Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire

The Austro-Hungarian Empire fought in 11 different primary languages. No wonder they had so many problems.

The automobile Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in.

A massive siege howitzer from WWI

A mountain canon from the highest artillery emplacement in WWI (Mt. Ortler, 3,850 m)

WWI was not good for Austria

The Belvedere

It has a pretty good view.

The ceilings aren't bad either.

Napoleon!

Klimt's Judith

The Ship of Fools, 1923

Schonbrunn Palace

It has nice fountains

And gardens

And views

The Hapsburg Imperial Crypt has some very spooky sarcophagi.

Maria Theresa's tomb

King Maximilian of Mexico was shipped back here. It seems like some Mexican's have an affinity for him.

The tomb of the last great Austrian leader, Franz Joseph.

A Hapsburg casket from 2011

Another epic memorial in the Hofburg church

The owl building

The Prater is a famous old amusement park in Vienna

It is like a weird giant old expensive carnival.

They have a lot of dark rides, including this 4D monstrosity.

Yes...Mecky...